First impressions: AT&T’s new LTE network is faster than Verizon’s, for now. [Updated]

Of course, the question on the minds of mobile broadband junkies is: How fast is it?

Good news: It’s very fast . . . at least for now.

I took possession Monday of two loaner devices designed to work on AT&T’s flavor of LTE – a Momentum 4G air card, which connects to a computer using a USB 2.0 port, and anHTC Jetstream, a 10-inch Android 3.0 tablet. Unfortunately, AT&T incorrectly set up the Momentum so it only talks to its faux 4G, HSPA+ network. I’m still waiting for the company to reprovision the Momentum’s SIM to it works with LTE, but in the interim the Jetstream is letting me test the new network.

So far, my test results have been impressive, if inconsistent. The device’s state or the connection at the time may affect speeds.

For example, on the Jetstream on Monday, I was averaging around 10-11 Mbps download speeds, with upload speeds in the 6-7 Mpbs range, from the downtown offices of the Mighty Houston Chronicle. This morning at my home in the Montrose area, I was getting about the same speeds.

That is, until I rebooted the Jetstream tablet. Then I started getting results like this:

Tests this morning from home have been running in the 22-30 Mbps range for download speeds, and around 20 Mbps up – more than twice as fast as what I was seeing before the reboot.

Of course, that’s on a network that’s virtually a ghost town. AT&T has been selling LTE-capable devices since mid-August, but there probably aren’t very many on the network in Houston.

How’s Verizon’s LTE network compare today? I have a MiFi 4G LTE, a Wi-Fi hotspot device, and I connected to it using the Jetstream tablet. Here’s a sample of the speeds I’m seeing through Verizon’s LTE service:

Not shabby at all.

I’m not alone. PC Mag’s Sascha Segan flew into Houston to test the AT&T and Verizon LTE networks here and got even better results. Depending on the location, he got spikes of almost 43 Mpbs, with an average of 24 Mbps down.

LTE’s a great technology, and it’s good that AT&T’s finally joined the 4G game. We’ll see how well the network does as more users join the party.

Update 9.21.2011: AT&T sent me a new Momentum 4G device, and I was finally able to test it on the LTE network. I’m seeing download speeds of 24-27 Mbps, and uploads of 10-13 Mbps.